leadership committee

Wendy Hoekwater is Vice President of Marketing & eCommerce for Marriott International's Managed Select Service and Extended Stay Lodging portfolio. In her role, she is responsible for creating and implementing Marriott's strategic vision for eCommerce, overseeing channel development strategies, and online customer acquisition and retention, while leading a team of marketing & eCommerce professionals supporting 500 hotels across the country.

Prior to joining Marriott, Wendy spent nearly 24 years on the advertising agency side of the business developing marketing and sales strategies for local, regional, national and International B2B and B2C companies. She is a member of the Chief Marketing Officer Council and formerly on the Oakland County Business Roundtable, where she developed marketing and public relations strategies for County political leaders. She is passionate about forward-looking strategies that drive profitable results.

Alexandra Tyler is the SVP and Head of Global Digital Rapid Innovation Experiences. Reporting to CMO of Global Consumer Bank, she leads a new function focused on rapid testing and learning, leveraging data and analytics.

Prior to joining Citi, Alexandra was the VP of Digital Marketing at Sales Development at TIAA-CREF. In that role, she oversaw the building, integration and optimization of all TIAA-CREF digital marketing channels across the prospect and customer lifecycle. She also managed the development of integrated digital campaigns focusing on increased conversion and engagement, digital content strategy and production, social intelligence and media and institutional sales development.

Alexandra has more than 20 years of new product development, direct and digital marketing experience across several industries, including financial and business services, fine arts, media and entertainment and telecommunications.

Alexandra began her career as an advertising Account Manager at Wunderman Worldwide and J. Walter Thompson Direct. She serves on the Boards of two non-profit organizations, the Financial Women's Association and Teachers & Writers. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Smith College and an MBA in marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Linda Gharib - SVP, Digital Marketing | Citi

Linda Gharib is Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing for Citi’s Global Consumer Marketing & Internet division where she leads several customer acquisition, competitive intelligence and marketing integration initiatives. Prior to joining Citi, Linda spent nearly five years at Microsoft where she held various digital media roles partnering with brands such as P&G, Kraft, Bank of America, and Lowe’s.

Earlier in her career, Linda led the Marketing and Investor Relations department of a leading law firm specializing in securities and antitrust litigation. Linda is also an Adjunct Professor of Internet Marketing & Global Business with experiencing teaching graduate students in New York and Singapore. She serves as the 212 NY Interactive Advertising Club professional development committee co-chair, member of the Association of National Advertisers Digital Marketing committee and sits on the CMO Council Advisory Board.

Linda holds a BA from Hunter College, an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business and studied International Marketing at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Switzerland. Linda is passionate about mentoring the next generation of marketers and is the recipient of the 2012 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation Rising Star Award.

Mark Middlebrook has been in the banking industry for over 20 years. He is the manager of City National Bank’s Interactive Marketing team. With over 15 years specializing in Interactive Marketing, he directs inbound marketing strategy, social media and interactive marketing efforts to support the company's online revenue goals. He is responsible for the bank's public Web site, cnb.com, social media strategy and training sales officers on how to use social media for selling, online email marketing (including SEO) and the corporate intranet.

Before joining City National, Mr. Middlebrook was assistant vice president and AOL channel manager at Union Bank of California, where he was responsible for managing all products on the bank's AOL Web site, BankNOW™, and strategic alliances. Before that, Mr. Middlebrook worked at Home Savings of America, where he managed and launched Internet funds transfer and bill pay services.

Mr. Middlebrook earned an MBA from the University of LaVerne, with an emphasis on information technology, and a bachelor's degree in marketing management from California State Polytechnic University of Pomona.

Richard is currently leading a cross-functional team to design and implement a global CRM platform. Previously, Richard worked 10+ years for Communications Planning agencies, including serving as the Global Communications Planning lead for The Gillette Company’s agency team. Richard was also a Brand & Product Manager at The Walt Disney Company’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Richard received both his BA Economics and his MBA from UCLA.

Jake Davidow - VP Head of Search | JP Morgan Chase

Jake Davidow is the Head of Search for J.P.Morgan Chase, leading search marketing and strategic planning efforts for J.P.Morgan Chase. He has a 10-year history of building profitable campaigns amongst top-tier brands in the financial services, CPG, and Pharmaceutical industries, specializing in digital marketing, cross-selling, business strategy, and product development.

Before coming to work at JPMC Jake worked on P&G accounts on both sides of the Atlantic. He worked on the steering committee that defined P&G's global search strategy and was involved in the set up of the LATAM, EMEA and APAC hubs that currently execute search. After that Jake led the account teams at Catalyst Online for all New York and Seattle business including Microsoft, Novartis, Kimberly Clarke and Alianz.

In his own time Jake has launched 5 successful apps one of which was nominated app of the week in the iTunes store.

Amy Bartle is Director, Media and Digital Marketing for La Quinta Inns & Suites. In this capacity, Ms. Bartle manages strategy for all customer-facing media channels for the brand in the US and Mexico to ensure integrated communication and campaign delivery across online and offline channels.

With a well-rounded background encompassing lead roles in brand management, marketing analytics, operations and revenue management, Amy is currently focused on elevating the standards for online audience delivery and brand campaigns with best in class digital partners. Ms. Bartle is a board member of the Dallas Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association, and enjoys sharing her thoughts via the occasional panel participation for iMedia, MediaPost and other industry conferences.

Ted Chi is the Vice President of Marketing Strategy – Digital Distribution at NBCUniversal. He is a performance-driven marketing executive with deep experience in media, entertainment and technology. Prior to his current role, he served as the head of marketing at Yahoo, where he led product marketing across Yahoo mobile and online media properties including Sports, News, Finance, Games and Entertainment. In that role, his responsibilities included overseeing strategy, performance marketing, consumer research, media planning and creative development across mobile and desktop offerings. Ran point on priority Brand/Sports partnerships including the SF Giants and 49ers to drive brand awareness and traffic in addition to defining the long-term plan.

Before that, Ted served as the Vice President of Global Marketing for Disney’s Interactive Gaming division. There, he led a team responsible for strategic marketing, product marketing, brand development, social media, consumer insights and user acquisition strategies for high-profile digital and physical product initiatives. Ted is also deeply involved in partnering with production and technology teams to deliver high quality, consumer-centric products to market. As one of the leaders in the industry, Mr. Chi has more than a decade of experience with major game and film makers including Activision, Fox and The Walt Disney Company. He has established and grown some of the most popular interactive brands in the world including Tony Hawk, Spiderman and Disney Epic Mickey.

A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Ted holds an MBA degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Outside of work, Ted enjoys yoga, acoustic guitar and most importantly, spending time with his wife and two little boys.

Mark Davis Walker is the Director of Business Development, eCommerce and Retail at NRG Home. He is focused on business development functions that drive strategic partnerships for NRG Home. He has developed a highly functioning team that creates, builds and manages relationships across the smart energy, smart home, solar industry and telecommunications space. In addition, Mark is responsible for the Digital Marketing, eCommerce function across the NRG Home portfolio companies to drive sales and digital transactions.

Previously, Mark spent over 5 years at Reliant Energy, where he was responsible for providing strategic direction of all customer acquisitions through digital channels and alternative channels for Reliant Energy.

Mark brings over 14 years of digital marketing experience ranging from Fortune 500 organizations and one of the leading consulting and advisory firms worldwide. His experience and expertise involves strategic planning, management and execution of interactive campaigns while building and maintaining an online customer base. Within the interactive industry, Mark sits on the advisory board of competitive intelligence firm, Hitwise and his work has been showcased in Jupiter Research. Mark holds a BA in Economics from The University of Texas and sits on the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Alumni Association.

Gerard Lim - VP Digital | Packet One Networks

Gerard Lim is an experienced professional with over 20 years in the Information Technology, Digital Media, Internet and Telecommunications industry. He has implemented many successful and innovative e-solutions including digital marketing in various government ministries, private corporations and multinationals across the Asian region and globally. He has consulted and successful delivered solutions for Intel, Sony, GE, HP, Fraunhofer Institute, Motorola, Petronas, Maxis, DiGi (subsidiary of Telenor) and many others.

A serial entrepreneur, Gerard has spent the last 15 years building various businesses in interactive digital media, E-commerce, Internet consulting, mobile applications and converged IP communications and has had a successful track record of starting up, growing and selling two of his businesses. He is a specialist writer in the field of Internet applications and digital marketing having written numerous articles for trade journals, national newspapers, and regional publications. Gerard is also a frequent speaker in the seminar circuit; speaking on the game changing effects of digitalization, entrepreneurship and digital marketing.

He has served as councilor on the National Association of Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (PIKOM), as Chairman of the Interactive Multimedia Association of Malaysia (IMA Malaysia) and Chairman of the IP Telephony Special Interest Group (SIG) at the Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC). Gerard is a member of the Technopreneur Association of Malaysia (TeAM) since 2008.

Gerard is a practicing digital marketer with years of experience and a keen interest in digital strategy, digital asset creation and digital channel execution across the disciplines of web experience, email, search, social networks, affiliates, mobile, content marketing, loyalty, performance management, measurement and analytics. Gerard is currently the VP of Digital Marketing at Packet One Networks. Prior to that, he served as the digital marketing practice lead at Axiata Digital Services’ Centre of Excellence (CoE), a unit at Asian region’s leading telecoms group, with presence in 10 countries reaching over 207 million people.

Kors van Wyngaarden - Global Director Digital Marketing | Philips

Kors van Wyngaarden is Marketing Director Imaging Systems for Philips Healthcare. His work focuses on leading customer driven downstream marketing for the imaging systems business group internationally. Previous to this he was responsible development and implementation of Philips’ online Healthcare strategy as Director Online Marketing and Strategy. He joined Philips in 2009 after 10 years in the Pharmaceutical industry in various roles including medical, marketing and online marketing. He Trained and worked throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the US. This includes several years working as a medical doctor.

Brett Lowe - CEO | PocketSlip

Brett Lowe is the CEO of PocketSlip, a new start up set to change the way we use till slips. Prior to this role he was the eMarketing Manager at Shoprite Holdings in South Africa. Under this role, he has implemented many firsts in the South African retailing space: targeted customer messaging via till slip and instant customer rewards from POS. He also probably maintains one of the biggest customer databases in the country.

He has vast experience in the fields of media planning and buying, search (both SEO and PPC) web analytics, email marketing, list generation, social media and mobile. His passion for data and the value it can bring to business led him to build one of the biggest databases in Africa of consumers.

Throughout his career, he has rolled out digital channels including USSD, mobi, App, till slip messaging, and websites across Africa. He has worked on collaborative campaigns with all the major FMCG brands like Unilever, Coca Cola, Tiger Brands, Pioneer Foods, AVI and crafted campaigns that deliver positive returns for both parties, while at the same time generating millions of Rand in revenue for further testing and development.

Jim Lefevere - Director, Global Digital Marketing | Roche Diagnostics

Jim Lefevere is an award-winning marketing leader and innovative global marketing professional in consumer goods, health care, and medical devices. He combines senior marketing experience with a pioneering entrepreneurial vision. Named one of the Top Forty business professionals under 40 by the Indianapolis Business Journal, He has lead marketing efforts for Fortune 100 organizations, industry consortia and fast growth start-ups. A respected expert on digital marketing and connected health care, he has been called a Social Media Pioneer and a Digital Health Scholar. His focus is on creating marketing and digital strategies that connect, engage and make a difference. He currently heads global digital marketing for a division of the world’s largest bio-tech company and a leader in research driven health care.

Neil Morgan - EVP Global Digital Marketing | Sage

Neil Morgan is a career marketer in enterprise software, with 25 years experience across all marketing disciplines including product management, product marketing, channel marketing, public relations, analyst relations, and strategic marketing management. Recently he has focused heavily in digital and social marketing, including building digital marketing teams across organic content, community management, and digital advertising. Neil has extensive international experience, having held UK, European, U.S. domestic and worldwide roles. He specializes in CRM, Digital & Social media marketing, high-tech marketing, product marketing, PR & AR, evangelism and all forms of communication.

For the past ten years Neil has been involved in working with customers on customer-facing systems from CRM to digital marketing. In February 2015 he joined Sage, the UK's largest software company, to lead its digital marketing strategy. Prior to that, Neil spent over three years as the VP of Marketing at Adobe in the EMEA region. Before Adobe, Morgan created the European marketing team at Omniture, subsequently acquired by Adobe, and previously led the marketing team at Siebel Systems, responsible for marketing to all sectors across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Before Siebel, Morgan was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Chordiant Software and held global marketing roles at Oracle Corporation including a period at Oracle’s San Mateo, CA headquarters.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Morgan holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a diploma in marketing, and is a member of the U.K. Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Direct Marketing. Neil lives with his wife and three boys in Oxfordshire, England.

Janice Chan is the Director of Digital Marketing at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific. In this role, Janice is championing the online channel growth and digital marketing strategy for 220+ hotels across Asia Pacific from Australia, China to India for all 9 brands under the Starwood umbrella. She is a thirteen-year veteran of digital, creating integrated marketing solutions using web, social, mobile and video to build consumer relationships for global brands. She believes everything can be optimized in digital and has successfully delivered results at a low cost, and high margins. Another mission of Janice goal is to turn traditional marketing luddites into digital evangelists through training and analytics.

Skip heads up digital marketing strategy and execution for Tata Communications, a key member of the Tata Group—India’s largest conglomerate. Since 1996 Skip has been at the forefront of leveraging technology and innovative solutions to deliver results for start-ups and multi-national Enterprises. At Mplayer, the world’s first online game network, he helped create and program one of the world’s most sticky online experiences.

Heading up Marketing and the consumer business at online bookseller Alibris, Skip forged a strategic partnership with Google to alpha test Adwords, which mutually transformed the bookseller into the world’s #4 bookseller and helped launch one of the Web’s most profitable business models. At Digital Chocolate he headed up global marketing and teamed with Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins to launch one of the world’s first mobile app developers, as well as one of the world’s first mobile commerce portals and mobile community.

Sergio Coelho - Senior Digital Marketing Manager | Telefônica Brasil

Sergio Coelho is the Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Telefônica Brasil. Prior to joining the team towards the end of 2015, he was Head of Digital Strategy for GVT, a Vivendi company, considered one of the most important Telecommunication and Cable TV companies in Brazil. He was responsible for digital presence's strategy, with a focus on brand development, customer acquisition and customer relationship on web, mobile and social platforms. In that role, he led a multidisciplinary team, with specialists in Brand Monitoring on Social Networks, User Experience, Interface Design, Design Research, Media Planning and Buying, SEO, Content, Engagement, Business Intelligence and Technology. His area has a strong relationship with R&D, Innovation, PR, Consumer Insights, CRM, and IT, and has advised on these areas through Digital Experience consulting.

As a graduate with a focus in Graphic Design, he has expertise in Business, Marketing and Digital Strategy. He is a pioneer in Digital Communication in Brazil, with an experience of 16 years in the market. Sergio was a co-founder in one of the first specialized agency of this market. During this period, he was in charge of Digital Strategies, Digital Asset Creation, Interactive Campaigns, using digital experience disciplines like UX, Social Media, Email MKT, Measurement and Analytics, Branded Content, Mobile, SEO, PPC. He has worked on planning and creation of project and campaigns for Fortune 500's organizations such as HSBC, Kraft Foods, Renault, Toyota, Walmart, LG and big Brazilian Companies like GVT, Oi, iG, O Boticário.

Phil Klassen is Executive Director, Digital Marketing at Travel Alberta, responsible for developing and executing the province of Alberta’s digital tourism marketing strategy. Throughout his 15-year career, Phil has held senior level positions guiding start-ups, established global brands, and government organizations looking to facilitate change and maximize business performance. Phil holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Lethbridge and has received numerous awards for business leadership and marketing excellence. Phil resides in Calgary, Alberta and is a frequent global traveller.

Paul Marcum - President | Truffle Pig

Paul Marcum serves as the President of Truffle Pig, where he works with brands to deliver incredible content programs with publishers and platforms. Prior to this, he worked at Bloomberg as the Head of Digital. He joined the team to finalize strategic plans before transitioning to operational role. Paul spearheaded improvement of overall data tracking including partnerships with Newswhip and Dynamic Signal to improve social performance. He was responsible for growing Bloomberg's digital video reach by 350% year over year to lead Comscore's worldwide business video rankings.

Before that, Paul spent over 3 years as the Director of Global Digital Marketing & Programming at GE, where he was responsible for creating and delivering the company’s online brand and reputation around the world through a compelling and engaging Web presence, creation/curation of content, and the development of robust distribution strategies to disseminate GE’s stories and messages to key audiences and stakeholders.

Paul has over 20 years of experience as a pioneer in digial media and has a unique background in marketing, content development and digital distribution. Through roles at Yahoo!, Sesame Workshop and the breakthrough advertising firm Modem Media, he has developed award-winning digital experiences for iconic global brands such as Star Wars, Citi, Sesame Street and AT&T. He has structured and negotiated distribution and licensing partnerships with a broad range of organizations including Comcast, Google, Verizon Wireless, AOL and Lucasfilm and launched multiple new product lines across a variety of platforms.

Over the years he has helped lead the evolution of content in the digital environment, creating the NY Data Visualization Meetup, serving on the PBS Next Generation Advisory Board and participating as an ATAS Interactive Emmy judge. A graduate of Northwestern University, he lives in New York with his wife, two kids and two labs and, when not in front of a screen, can often be found skiing, playing tennis or golfing.

Doug Neil - SVP - Digital Marketing | Universal Pictures

Doug Neil is the Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing for Universal Pictures. In this capacity he oversees the online and mobile strategies for theatrical releases including website development, publicity, promotions, social media, creative strategy, emerging platforms and media placements. His responsibilities include the global coordination of theatrical digital strategies through the full life cycle of a film campaign. He has overseen the online and mobile marketing campaigns for over 120 films including Pitch Perfect, Ted, The Lorax, American Reunion,Fast Five, Hop, Cowboys & Aliens, Despicable Me, Little Fockers, Bruno, Fast & Furious, The Bourne Ultimatum, Wanted, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and It’s Complicated.

Neil was iMedia’s 2012 Visionary Marketer of the Year and was also recognized by OnHollywood as a Digital Entertainment Power Player. He has also made keynote and panel presentations at the OMMA Premium Display Conference and the Variety Film Summit.

Prior to Universal Pictures, he worked for AOL as Director, Entertainment Strategy, managing the online marketing campaigns for AOL’s filmed entertainment partners, playing a key role in the launch of AOL’s new entertainment initiatives including TMZ.com.

Prior to AOL, Neil was Vice President, Marketing for Hollywood Ventures, a children's entertainment production and distribution company. Neil also has held executive positions with The Disney Channel, Hawaiian Airlines and Andersen Consulting. He has a M.B.A. from The Tuck School at Dartmouth College and is a Computer Science graduate of the College of William and Mary. Neil currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Wesley School, an independent K-8 school in North Hollywood, CA.

Barbara Pamplin - SVP/CMO | YMCA

Barbara Pamplin is the CMO for the YMCA of Greater Seattle and President of Pamplin Digital Marketing. Prior to joining the executive team at the YMCA and starting Pamplin Digital to develop digital marketing education programs, Barbara led global acquisition strategy and execution for the Microsoft’s Office family of products, drove global paid search for the Xbox One announcement/launch as well as game titles and the Xbox Live service and creative development for the 2012 Xbox 360 holiday digital campaign. She also spent time in Microsoft's Central Marketing Group where she held roles as the Mobile Marketing Global Practice Lead — a position to develop mobile marketing training, process, and tools for the company’s thousands of marketers across 51 countries — as well as Global Advertising Manager where she led development and execution of global advertising campaigns to engage tech audiences and drove cutting edge mobile advertising efforts while serving as a mobile SME for the team.

Barbara’s experience prior to joining Microsoft includes brand management with Johnson & Johnson, Unilever Bestfoods, and full service agency account management for clients such as Amtrak, Wachovia, and the US Fund for Unicef.

Barbara received numerous Marketing Excellence and Gold Star awards throughout her career at Microsoft and was selected as an Internationalist 100 as well as featured by Mobile Marketer as one of the 25 Mobile Marketing Women to Watch in 2011. She is truly an evangelist, speaking frequently at industry events and partnering with marketing thought-leaders to help improve digital marketing expertise industry wide.